ND Apple Car Play

Technical Area Electrics & ICE
1
  1. My model of MX-5 is: __ND
  2. I’m based near: __Dundee
  3. I’m looking for technical help or recommendations on: __Apple Car Play

Hi all,

As with most people I find the infotainment system pretty useless and would like to see if I could get Apple Car Play in the car.
Has anyone managed this and if so could they send details of how they did it and a picture of what it looks like.
Had asked the question previously and got quite a lot of ‘get the bit on Ebay’ not being the most tech savy person, small words, pictures and idiot proof instructions work well.

thanks in advance

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2

There’s a thread here that previously discussed it: CarPlay Fitting

Personally I’d talk nicely to Barnetts and see what they would charge.

If you’re reasonably technically adventurous it’s probably not that difficult.

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I got the dealer to fit the kit as I didn’t want to risk damaging trim parts by trying myself.

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4

I did the same in my previous ND (1)

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5

So does this keep the existing screen and there are parts that plug in somewhere?

6

Exactly this, there is a replacement for the panel in the centre console that has the two USB sockets, basically it upgrades one to higher power to support the demands of Car Play / Android Auto.

Then there is the software upgrade if required to a version which supports the functionality.

Later models of the screen (don’t know when exactly the change was made, maybe ND2) have a higher resolution so you’ll get a better display, it still works on the older version though.

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7

My ND2 screen resolution is the same as my ND1 had (where the dealer retrofitted Carplay).
Later ND2s have wireless carplay, I just use a Carlinkit dongle and charge the phone if needed through the cigarette lighter plug

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8

The difference is between the screens that had the silver bezel and the later black with a higher resolution, though difficult to quantify the specific numbers.

The black bezelled screen is shared over different models/manufacturers at a certain point in time, Mazda in the CX5, toyota in the Yaris etc…

It also seems not that difficult to change out the silver bezelled screen for a black one if so inclined.

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I did the cable and hub update last week. Don’t be scared about taking the interior apart it’s easy. Took 2 hours start to finish. I have all of the instructions and the update if you want to pm me. The only weird thing is it doesn’t seem to work with touch when stationary like the Mazda software does. It would be nice if you could enable touch 100% of the time for the screen but that’s a different topic I can’t see why they’ve done it more distracting using the control thing imo

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Is this carplay or android auto?

AFAIK, touchscreen is disabled on Android Auto at all times

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11

Android. That’s stupid.

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12

I actually quite like using the control dial and find it less distracting than using a touch screen.

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13

Please may you send the instructions & a link for the carlinkit to me

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14

Will dm

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I did the update myself to my 2016 car and it was quite straightforward.
You have to upgrade the Infotainment software to at least version 70.00.100 before you install the new hardware usb hub - but, if yoiu have an older car like mine and your existing software level is 56.xx.xxx, then BEFORE YOPU UPGRADE IT, you can install a software tweak using a USB stick (Google “AIO Tweaks”), which enables the Touchscreen whilst moving and that tweak is retained after you upgrade the software so that you can use the Touchscreen to control Carplay…
BTW - I bought my hub through AliExpress for about £60. Took a few weeks to arrive but it was the best price around.
Also, on AliExpress, you can buy a reverse camera for just £25 that plugs into the back of the Infotainment system. A great idea to do both at the same time to save dismantling the dash twice like I did…

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I’m looking at upgrading as well but have found that Mazda have stopped the firmware from being freely available. I have heard that some dealerships if spoken to nicely might upgrade the firmware

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Pm me for firmware updates

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18

I bought Carlink kit from Alibaba to make Apple Play wireless and have to say, it’s very very good.

Been using this for a week now, impressed with it. Get in car, start the engine, shut door, seat-belt on, Mazda warning message on display, drive off, phone connects, carlinkit connects, CarPlay screen pops up, Tunein app starts and Boom radio on.

It remembers the last app used, so, for example, Apple Maps and Tunein were on when the car was shut down, it resumes with these when starting up.

The package was very nice, almost (not quite) Apple standard boxing, but very professional.

Inside was the small device, two USB leads and an instruction manual with the smallest print I have seen. Without my reading glasses, it could have been heirogryphics. Luckily, the manual wasn’t really necessary.

I plugged the usb-c connector into the device and the usb-a plug into the wired carplay socket on the ND and tucked the device into the cubby gap. The extra lead is if you want to “pass-thru” to charge the iphone (usb-c to usb-c)

I switched the car to accessory mode and the device booted and asked a couple of questions, make and model of car. It then asked to create a bluetooth connection to the iphone.

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A few seconds later, it booted to CarPlay automatically.  You can go to settings and look for updates, manual connection, bluetooth name etc etc but other than checking for a software update (there wasn’t t one), I left well alone.

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… and just to prove “no leads”

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I did a couple of timing tests, unlocking, watching entertainment system boot thru warning screen etc and by the time it was ready to use, the wireless carplay adapter had already booted and connected to my iphone in my pocket.  Impressed.

I tried out iphone maps, google maps, tunein radio, messages, whatsapp and they all worked OK as did Siri and the phone for calls.

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I second that - I have been using Carlinkit in each of my cars for more than a year now - to the point that I bought a 2nd one to avoid moving it. I found Carlinkit 3.0 much more stable than 4.0 (which adds Android Auto)

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Just reading up about AIO Tweaks. Looks fantastic. Seems newer firmwares can still be supporting. Just with a much more complicated approach. So touchscreen while driving is still technically available for newer firmware owners?

*Edit, your ideal Firmware version to use AIO tweaks is between V55-V59

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